Ford Prefect: Also a Car
The Ford Prefect was one of many Fords that the UK presented to its constituents, as well as a memorable character from a beloved book.
Written by Alex Reale
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
To live in 20th and 21st century modernity is to be saturated with car content. Our expressions reflect this obsession: who among us hasn’t pumped the brakes, or hit the road? References to driving and cars abound, and our literature is no exception.
Jerry
, the car ownership super app
, looks at the Ford
Prefect: famous car, possibly even more famous character.Ford Prefect: Car
Ford is one of the most well-known and loved American companies, but our friends across the pond have been big fans for a long time, too. The Ford Fiesta and Ford Escort are the two top-selling vehicles in the UK of all time, according to
Auto Express
, and there is no sign that interest in the brand is waning, with the Ford Puma currently in second place for 2022.British interest in Ford began in 1911 when the firm first opened its doors outside of North America, says
Belfast Telegraph
, in Manchester, England. Over the decades, the company opened more locations across the UK, and an army of Fords was manufactured.Among these was the Ford Prefect, a two- or four-door sedan that debuted in 1938.
Classic Cars
notes that it was the “upmarket version of its direct siblings the Ford Popular and Ford Anglia.” It was around on and off until 1961, and was among the cheaper four-door options for Britons during its tenure. In a 1948 test of a Prefect, says Classic Car, the vehicle topped out at 61 mph and accelerated from 0-50 mph in 22.8 seconds. Ford Prefect: Character
The Ford Prefect had its heyday in the 1930s and ‘40s and gradually faded into obscurity as other Fords were churned out of the factory. But its name was destined for greatness beyond the driver’s seat.
In the fall of 1979, a book called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” came out. It told the story of an ordinary British man named Arthur Dent who finds himself cast off into outer space after Earth has been destroyed by aliens—to make space for an intergalactic bypass. Hilarious, zany, and often profound, it was an immediate sensation, and author Douglas Adams had an instant classic.
Adams, who was born in the UK in 1952, was well-positioned to make jokes about British minutiae, and he did. One character in his book, an alien researcher whose 15-year assessment of Earth is summed up in the phrase “mostly harmless,” is the clever, resourceful Prefect. Prefect had picked his name out upon his arrival on the planet because it seemed “nicely inconspicuous.”
In later interviews, Adams explained that this was his wink at the enormous impact of cars on the public imagination: Ford had “simply mistaken the dominant life form.” Fair enough. Perhaps future alien researchers will call themselves Tesla Optimus.
Either way, don’t forget your towel
Though we don’t see any Ford Prefects on the road anymore, a little slice of car history lives on, as new fans are forced to listen to Vogon poetry, and old fans revel in the antics of one Zaphod Beeblebrox. Pro tip: throw a towel in the back of your Ford Fiesta. You never know.
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car insurance
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